Antifreeze?

So a long time ago I drained the antifreeze ( the pink stuff). out of my truck. It was Probably around 20 k when i did it ( why i did this i do not even remember and looking back on it wtf was i thinking)..but anyways... i drained it all out and flushed it and everything, and put new antifreeze in it that wasnt toyota coolant. it was made for all engines anyways i think it was prestone green crap.. is this gonna kill my motor eventually and should i change it back to the toyota stuff. i didnt mix the two colors so i dont kno

 

no its not gonna kill ur motor... ur motor isnt made any differently then others.... while toyota coolant is preferred.. its not a must.

 

I THINK, the toyota specific coolant doesnt NEED to be the end all replacement, I actually used a Prestone product that was intended for GM, FOrd and Chrysler, it was pink but the main issue was a corrosion inhibitor for cars that have cast iron blocks and aluminum radiators. We have iron blocks and aluminum heads. It needs to be flushed every 5 years or 150 K miles. I have 106K on my 1999 now and have flushed it twice. I think the key is change it every 4-5 years to help water passages free of corrosion, which can happen when two dissimilar metals are used(aluminum head on a steel block.)

 

If you end up with a cooling problem or leak change it back to pink

 

Do you have to mix the Toyota's coolant w/ water (50/50) or can you just pour straight from the bottle into the resvior?

 

You should mix to whatever temperature you get. 50/50 is default but if you are in Texas you may want to do less coolant more water in order to provide more cooling.

 

Was it a 50/50 mixture of water and ethelyne glycol? If so, you should be good!

 

When I was a kid (17) I flushed the anti freeze in my Jeep... With advice from a friend who said if 50% anti freeze with water is good, then 100% has got to be better! Sounded logical!

WRONG! LOL I over-heated, ruined a water pump, and learned to trust factory recommendations!

 

If your truck specifies Toyota SLLC (Super Long Life Coolant) it is only sold by Toyota as a pre-mix. It is an HOAT (Hybrid Organic Acid Technology) and mixing with tap water can cause problems.

The old toyota LLC (Long Life) was a high quality standard anti-freeze (ethylene-glycol).


Do not mix Dex-Cool (GM Product) with Toyota SLLC it is not the same product.

I do not care for one size fits all coolants. Metals are not the only thing in cooling systems. There are rubbers and plastics too, and these can be negatively impacted by the wrong chemistry being used. Problems do not show up immediately so the connections to incorrect fluids are rarely made.

 

I don't like the new coolants. They probably have them correct now but I remember when the orange stuff (Dex-Cool) came out, it caused all kinds of problems and gunked up the coolant sytems. Good old GREEN is the way to go. There was never any issues and works great. The new versions seem like gimicks to me.

 

+1

 

Haha funny how its supposed to have a corrosion inhibitor...My buddy has been borrowing his mom's spare vehicle, a PT cruiser while his car is out of commission and had a METAL coolant line burst on him about 2-3 weeks ago. The car has 65k miles, the fluid has never been changed in it, still factory fluid since they bought the car new from the dealer. I can understand a rubber hose failing but a metal coolant line..thats ridiculous. When I pulled the radiator cap and we drained the system it was full of corrosion. The thermostat was a block of rust, the coolant line got a hole in it about the size of the of a pen because it corroded from the inside out. The outside of the line still looked brand new.

let me re-iterate again, this pt cruiser has 65k miles, bought new from the dealer, still had the factory coolant, we live in GA so the car has zero exterior corrosion on any of the parts.

Chryslers are junk...END RANT


As for the question about your taco. You should be fine. I put almost 100k miles on my old honda with prestone green 50/50 mixed with about 80% tap water and a bottle of redline water-wetter mixed and the day I sold the car the coolant was still as "clear" as it was when I originally changed it.